High School, College Players Join Together for Tournament

This past Saturday, more than 70 tennis players headed to the University of Pennsylvania for the Big Five Philly Play Day, a doubles tournament. Some were high schoolers, and some were in college. But for one morning, they joined together as teammates.

“It’s a good opportunity for high school tennis players to see what kind of tennis is available to them at the collegiate level,” said tournament director Mary Wurtz. “The college kids team up with a high schooler, and can teach them through demonstration about Tennis On Campus. There is competitive tennis available to those kids who don’t want to play varsity.”

USTA Tennis On Campus is designed to provide college students with a host of opportunities for team camaraderie, social networking and unrivaled competition through tennis — without the demands of a varsity program.

Tennis On Campus follows a World TeamTennis format, where a five-set match consists of a set each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Every fall, teams compete at Section Championships for a chance to travel in the spring to National Championships.

The five Philadelphia colleges represented were Drexel, Penn, St. Joe’s, Temple and Villanova. Each college was paired with high school players from Upper Dublin, Owen J. Roberts, Methacton and Souderton.

Multiple high school coaches also joined.

“High school tennis players interact with their coaches every day,” Wurtz said. “If these coaches are familiar with Tennis On Campus, they can become advocates for the program for years to come.”